Protocol I. Highlights of the First Hashish Impression [by Walter Benjamin:]
Written 18 December [1927]. 3:30 a.m.
Written 18 December [1927]. 3:30 a.m.
1. Apparitions hover (vignette-like) over my right shoulder. Chill in this shoulder. In this context: "I have the feeling that there are 4 in the room apart from myself." (Avoidance of the necessity to include myself.)
2. Elucidation of the Potemkin anecdote<1> by the explanation, be it suggestion: to present to a person the mask of their own face (i.e., of the bearer's own face).
3. Odd remarks about aetheric mask [Äthermaske], which would (obviously) have mouth, nose, etc.
7. Poetic evidence in the phonetic: for a while at one point, no sooner had I made an assertion than I'd have used the very word in answer to a question merely by the perception ( so to speak) of the length of time in the duration of sound in either of the words. I sense that as poetic evidence.
8. Connection; distinction. Feeling of little wings growing in one's smile. Smiling and flapping as related. One has among other things the feeling of being distinguished because one fancies oneself in such a way that one really doesn't become too deeply involved in anything: however deeply one delves, one always moves on a threshold. Type of toe dance of reason.